Bio | Ayesha Green
Ngāti Kahungunu, Kai Tahu
Born 1987
Lives and works in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland
“In her studio-based practice, Ayesha Green sustains a provocative engagement with processes of reproduction. By her own admission, Green utilises mimicry and copying to undermine the authority of symbolic objects, questioning the authenticity of their claims to power. While giving precedence to source material from the era of first contact between Māori and Pākehā, Green continues to draw on a wide range of references. Attempting to transmute the power of inherited objects and images by establishing new reading’s, Green thus pushes back at European-centric practices of anthropology and classification, and the demonstrable military and cultural domination of our shared colonial history.”
Elle Loui August, Matters Art Journal Aotearoa: Issue 8 (2018)
Ayesha Green (Kai Tahu, Ngāti Kahungunu) is an artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau. She graduated with a Bachelor of Media Arts from Wintec in 2009 and went on to complete a Master of Fine Arts from Elam in 2013. In 2016 she completed a Graduate Diploma in Arts specalising in Museums and Cultural Heritage. In 2021 she won the Rydal Prize through the Tauranga Art Gallery, in 2020 she was a Springboard Arts Foundation Recipient and in 2019 she won the National Contemporary Art Awards. Recent exhibitions include: To the best of my Knowledge, Hastings City Art Gallery (2021); Good Citizen, Jhana Millers (2021); Toi Tū Toi Ora, Auckland Art Gallery 2020/21; Wrapped up in Clouds, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, 2020; Strands, The Dowse Art Museum (2019); Tuia — Southern Encounters, The Hocken Gallery (2019); Elizabeth the First, Jhana Millers (2019). Her work is in the collection of Te Papa Tongarewa, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, The Dowse Art Museum, The Govett-Brewster, The MTG Hawkes Bay and more.
Education
GradDipArt, Specialising in Museums and Cultural Heritage, University of Auckland, 2016
Master of Fine Arts, Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland, 2014
PGDipFA, Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland, 2013
Bachelor of Media Arts, Waikato Institute of Technology, 2009
Exhibitions
2021
Autonomous Bodies: Figurative portraits by New Zealand women, wāhine, transgender and non-binary artists, New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata, Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington (upcoming)
To the best of my Knowledge, Hastings City Art Gallery, Heretaunga
Good Citizen, Jhana Millers, Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington
Nine Māori Painters, Tim Melville, Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland
The Right Place? Auckland Art Fair, Jhana Millers
2020
Toi Tū Toi Ora, Auckland Art Gallery, Tāmaki Makaurau
Selected for commission of a sculpture in the Octagon with Dunedin City Council, Ōtepoti
Wrapped up in Clouds, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Ōtepoti
He Tohu, Jhana Millers Gallery, Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington
Release the Stars, Tim Melville, Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland
2019
Strands, The Dowse Art Musuem, Te Awakairangi, Lower Hutt
Tuia - Southern Encounters, The Hocken Gallery
National Contemporary Art Awards, Waikato Museum, Kirikiriroa, Hamilton
Elizabeth the First, Jhana Millers, Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington
You Had Fun Experience, George Fraser Gallery, Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland
Living Portraits: Mata Raurangi, Auckland Art Gallery, Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland
Modern People, NZ Portrait Gallery, Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington
Two Oceans at Once, ST Paul St Gallery, Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland
2018
Māori Girl, Blue Oyster Art Project Space, Ōtepoti, Dunedin
EAST 2018, Hastings City Art Gallery, Heretaunga
(Un)Conditional Series, The Melbourne Art Fair, The Suter Gallery, The Physics Room, Ōtautahi, Christchurch
Alma Venus, Corbans Estate Art Centre, Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland
2017
Here and Now, Malcolm Smith Gallery, Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland
Summa Pete, Papakura Art Gallery, Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland
The Spirit of the Thing Given, RM Gallery, Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland
Biographies of Transition: Too Busy to Think, ArtSpace, Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland
On The Grounds, Starkwhite Gallery, Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland
Scholarships/Awards/Residencies
The 2021 Rydal Art Prize through Tauranga Art Gallery
The Arts Foundation Springboard Award 2020
2019 Winner, the National Contemporary Art Awards
Blue Oyster Winter Residency, December 2018
Te Arerenga Residency, Rarotonga, Cook Islands, July 2017
Finalist in the New Zealand Paint and Printmaking Awards 2017
Seagers Walters, Mirage Gallery (Winner), 2016
Finalist in the New Zealand Paint and Printmaking Awards 2013
Collections
Te Papa Tongarewa
Dunedin Public Art Gallery
Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū
MTG Hawke’s Bay Tai Ahuriri
The Govett-Brewster
The Dowse Art Museum
Waikato Museum
The Fletcher Trust Collection
Reviews/Essays
Homestyle magazine, Issue 103, August/September 2021, pg 46–50
Imperial Vegetables, Lachlan Taylor on Ayesha Green's I thought I heard you crying in the forest, The Art Paper, Issue 00
The Psychogeographer's Dream, David Eggleton, Art New Zealand, Issue 176, Summer 20-21
Meet Ayesha Green, The Artist Unearthing The Language Of Flowers, Viva, February 2021. Read it here
AYESHA GREEN: WAYS OF SEEING, Art Edit, 2021. Read it here
Public art work to function as gateway, Otago Daily Times, 10 June 2020. Read it here
Shaping Aotearoa, M2 Woman, 2020. Read it here
Art News New Zealand, Summer 2019. Text by Lucy Jackson
Art Collector, Issue 89, 2019. Text by Francis McWhannell
Hamster, Issue 4, May 2019. Text by Tia Pohatu
Art New Zealand, Issue 169, Autumn 2019. Text by Edward Hanfling
Matters Aotearoa, Issue 8, 2019. Text by Elle Loui
Art Collector, Issue 84, April 2018. Text by Lucinda Bennett
ArtZone, Issue 70, July 2017. Text by Lily Hacking